Jimmy Tickel, DVM, was honored with the Global Animal Welfare Award by the World Veterinary Association for his disaster preparedness and response contributions and efforts in North America.

Head shot of a man, Jimmy Tickel, in a striped shirt.
Jimmy Tickel, DVM, was honored with the Global Animal Welfare Award by the World Veterinary Association. (Photo by Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases)

Tickel received his award at the 37th World Veterinary Association Congress in Abu Dhabi, The United Arab Emirates.

The Global Animal Welfare Award 2021 aims to recognize people and institutions for their dedication and outstanding work, going “above and beyond” to protect and safeguard the welfare of animals and promote the animal welfare concept and approach in their daily lives.

Tickel is a veterinarian at the Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases, IIAD, a part of the Texas A&M University System, and Texas A&M AgriLife Research. He joined IIAD in 2018 as an animal emergency management subject matter resource with expertise in issues related to disease and disaster mitigation, prevention and response on national and international levels.

“Dr. Tickel has been instrumental as a veterinary leader in animal disasters and emergency management throughout his career, caring for both livestock and small animal emergencies,” said Heather Simmons, DVM, director of the Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases.

Animal emergency preparedness around the world

As an IIAD veterinarian, Tickel oversees and is involved with a number of projects focused on emergency preparedness. He serves as a technical expert on the Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, Good Emergency Management Practices Technical Working Group. Additionally, he represents IIAD in the World Organization for Animal Health, OIE, Collaborating Center Network for Veterinary Emergencies, EmVetNet, in the area of disease preparedness and threat reduction.

Tickel is also working to advance U.S. Foot-and-Mouth Disease Vaccine Planning and implementation as well as Mortality Management Capability through two National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program grants.

In addition, he is currently working on a game-based learning system, initially funded by the Department of Homeland Security, designed to ultimately increase Foreign Animal Disease critical infrastructure emergency preparedness.

Prior to coming to Texas A&M in 2018, Tickel retired after 28 years of service to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, where he had served as Incident Commander/Operations Section Chief for the Emergency Programs Division of the Department.

Over the years, he has trained/presented on Transboundary Animal Disease and Disaster Response/Preparedness in 45 states.

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